Martha Argerich

THE YOUNG LIONESS!
Martha Argerich’s exhilarating Early Recordings

In 1960 Martha Argerich was not yet a household name. Martha Argerich’s exhilarating early recordings, released here for the first time. This set displaying the young virtuoso includes works which are already numbered among the highlights of her discography, notably Prokofiev’s Toccata op. 11 and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Sonatine, but it also features works which seem far from typical of her repertory. Mozart’s D major Sonata K576 and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata op. 10 no. 3, also in D major, are both works that have previously not been a part of Martha Argerich’s official discography. They show her to be an eloquent and imaginative artist at the age of 18, already at the peak of her abilities.

ONE OF A KIND!
Martha Argerich presents her complete Chopin recordings!

Argerich shows us what Chopin is all about. She demonstrates how this composer, along with his many other features, continually twisted the dials of music’s air-conditioning system, overwhelming cool melodic solitude with surges of warmth and intermingling cold wellsprings with hot flashes. Despite all the pathos it is sometimes made to bear, the emotionalism of Chopin’s music is always humanly ennobled. This is what makes it so eloquent in Argerich’s readings, so visceral, so powerful in its impact. The linguistic force of his music is unmistakably valid beyond the boundaries of nations and continents. That is why there are so many excellent Chopin players on this earth, but only one Martha Argerich.

GREETINGS FROM BUENOS AIRES!

On 11 March Deutsche Grammophon releases a live recording of another of the legendary concerts that Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich have given in the
Teatro Colón – in this case in the summer of 2015.

The programme was recorded in July during the second “Festival de Música y Reflexión” that Daniel Barenboim established in 2014 in his native Argentina.
Following the outstanding success of last year’s inaugural album, Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich elected to perform chamber music together in the
city of their birth. On the programme were works for two pianos: Debussy’s arrangement of Schumann’s Six Studies in Canon Form, Debussy’s own En blanc et
noir and Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. According to an enthusiastic Argentine press, “One year on, the exciting encounter between the
lively Martha and the masterly Daniel has once again produced magnificent and indeed fabulous results. There was magic from the first note onwards.”

Japan’s leading music magazine has named Martha Argerich a winner in its 50th annual Record Academy Awards. An authoritative voice in music since 1963, Record Geijutsu has been naming the world’s best recordings for half a century, and its awards are considered among the most glittering prizes in the world of classical music.

Martha Argerich was soloist on Claudio Abbado’s first ever recording for Deutsche Grammophon. Their reunion in Mozart concertos, recorded at the 2013 Lucerne Festival, was released shortly after Abbado’s death and was immediately seen as an outstanding tribute to both artists (“These are performances in which vital sparks generate palpable electricity” – Daily Telegraph).

Speaking of the Record Academy’s Silver Award for her recording of Mozart concertos with Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich said: “I am deeply touched and honoured to receive this award, both in my name and for my dear friend Claudio Abbado. It’s impossible for me – as I know it would be for him – to express in mere words the pristine, existential joy of our final Mozart performance together, but if the Geijutsu jury has heard it in the recording, their recognition is a fitting crescendo for the coda of our lifelong collaboration.” In January 2015 the complete concerto recordings of Argerich and Abbado will be released.